Life, 1923-05-03 · page 14 of 40
Life — May 3, 1923 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical cartoon depicts five caricatured men at a statue unveiling ceremony. The caption identifies them left-to-right as "A Soldier, a Mayor, a Financier, a Politician, a Congressman" and notes "The Sculptor" in the background. The joke appears to mock public ceremony attendees and civic leaders as self-serving or corrupt types. The accompanying text snippets—"Real Affluence" (discussing wealthy people staying home summers) and "The Better Way" (a joke about Russians and Tartars)—suggest the cartoon critiques hypocrisy among the elite and powerful. The exaggerated facial expressions and body language typical of Life magazine's satirical style emphasize these figures as ridiculous or contemptible representatives of American institutions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Sunday Ball Player Real Affluence The Better Way “Are they well-to-do?” “ScratcH a Russian and you'll “Well-to-do? Why, those people find a Tartar.” are so rich they can stay at home in “I think I'll let the Russians do the summer if they want to.” their own scratching.” At the Unveiling of a Statue From Left to Right, in Foreground: A Soldier, a Mayor, a Financier, a Congressman, a Contractor. In Background, Under Arrow: The Sculptor. Wes. Pops Diary April 27th Awake early, and fell a- telling Sam of my great desire to learn to play the banjo, and he responded that such inclinations would, as far as he was concerned, be better argu ments for the separate ménage s tem of matrimony than any Fannie Hurst could ever say luncheon at Marge Bootht we did indulge in a little plain speak ing, always a dangerous thing, even between such good friends as we And I was astounded to learn irom Marge that I unconsciously domi- nate to a deplorable extent all per- | sons with whom I come in contact. albeit upon reflection it would seem that my associates, not I, should be blamed for that. And I do also be- lieve that, in nine cases out of ten if people go where I want to go or do what I want to do, it is because I know my own mind better than they know theirs and am = nore ready with suggestions. | must, how- ever, set a guard upon myself in this respect and become docile and re- treating, which, God knows, will be difficult. Nor did I tell Marge, for my part, that she is far too critical of everything and everybody to ex- tract from life all the pleasure which is to be had from it. . . .In the eve- ning to the playhouse to see “The God of Vengeance,” a sincere and moving piece of work on which au- diences place an emphasis which the author did not intend. A letter come from Beth Williams, one of my classmates at Smith Col- lege, and she did refer to the ad- vance of the years in a way that angered me. For I do not feel so old now as I did when President Seelye gave us his benediction, nor would I go back and relive the days of my youth for anything on this earth, having developed appreciative facul- ties of which I knew naught when I was a débutante. But Beth was al- ways somewhat desperate about everything, and I well remember how she wept at having to go home after Commencement on the grounds that nobody in Peoria cared whether Hamlet was mad or not. -To call upon old Mrs. Billings in the late afternoon, and she did offer me a (Continued on page 29) April 28th comicbooks.com